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Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Trump’s chaos produces results: Gulf states upgrade ties to Israel

A cornerstone of the Trump administration’s approach to
Israeli-Palestinian peace, involving a restructuring of relations between erstwhile
Middle Eastern foes appears to be taking shape: Gulf states are making
long-standing covert ties to the Jewish state overt without establishing formal
diplomatic relations. In the process, the Palestinians are being pressured to fall
into line.

The willingness of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates
and Bahrain to be more open about their long-standing relations with Israel
reflects their growing common interest with the Jewish state in countering Iran
and groups that they include in their sweeping definitions of terrorism; countering
mounting criticism of their tarnished human rights records by forging closer
ties to Jewish leaders in the United States; and supporting US President Donald
J. Trump.

The moves boost Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu who
has talked for months about ‘breakthroughs’
in Israel-Arab relations and recently asserted that cooperation “is much
larger than any other period in Israel’s history”.

The Bahrain-funded ceremony was attended by the king’s son, Prince
Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, who as commander of Bahrain's Royal Guard and
president of the country’s National Olympic Committee has been accused of abusing
the human rights of opponents of the government as well as athletes and
sports executives who in 2011 participated in peaceful anti-government
protests. Bahrain blames the protest on Iran and views Shiite opponents as
Iranian stooges.

The centre released at the event a Bahrain
Declaration on Religious Tolerance authored by King Hamad, the first of its
kind by an Arab head of state. Prince Nasser and Mr. Hier signed the
declaration at the ceremony.

To be fair, Bahrain’s minority Sunni Muslim government,
while brutally cracking down on Shiites, who constitute a majority of the
population and have been demanding equal rights and an end to discrimination,
has long had a record of religious tolerance towards non-Muslims.

The country has Jewish representatives in parliament and at
one point had an ambassador to the United States who was both female and
Jewish. Nancy Khedouri, a Jewish MP, attended a recent gathering of the World
Jewish Congress where she publicly met Israeli Transportation and Intelligence
Minister Yisrael Katz.

Gulf states hope that they can benefit from the Jewish
community’s influence in the United States. Their approaches come, however, at
a time that the community is split in its attitude towards Mr. Trump.

Jewish religious leaders this year backed
away from organizing a conference call with the president to mark the
Jewish high holidays in protest against Mr. Trump’s refusal to identify
neo-Nazi’s as responsible for a the killing of a woman in Charlottesville
during a white supremacist march in which anti-Semitic slogans were raised.

Mr. Heir told the ceremony that he and Rabbi Abraham Cooper,
the centre’s associate dean, had been authorized to make public a
series of statements made to them by King Hamad during a meeting in
February. In those statements, the king denounced the long-standing Arab
boycott of Israel and announced his intention to build by the end of this year a
museum of tolerance of his own.

Bahraini officials reportedly recently discussed
with Israel the institutionalization of mutual visits, allowing Bahraini
nationals to
freely travel to Israel, and opportunities for trade between their two
countries. Gulf states legally ban their citizens from visiting the Jewish
state.

Saudi and UAE troops helped the Bahrain government crush the
2011 popular revolt. Bahrain has since hued close to Saudi policy and would not
have made its gestures towards Israel without Saudi approval.

The Bahraini overtures came a month after US Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson castigated Bahrain for discriminating against Shiites. “Members
of the Shia community there continue to report ongoing discrimination in
government employment, education, and the justice system. Bahrain must stop
discriminating against the Shia communities,” Mr. Tillerson said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also in the firing line because
of the brutal conduct of their 2.5-year-old ill-fated invasion of Yemen as well
as iron-fisted domestic abuse of human rights.

Weeks before Bahrain’s public moves, Israeli media reported
that a member of a Gulf ruling family, believed to be a Saudi prince, had secretly
visited Israel in a bid to kickstart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Hamas, the
Islamist faction that controls Gaza, said last week it was willing to negotiate
with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about joint rule of the strip and move
towards long overdue elections. Debilitating rifts among the Palestinians have
complicated failed peace talks.

Hamas’ willingness to bury its hatchet with ailing Mr. Abbas’s
Fatah movement came as a result of a pincer movement in which the Palestinian
leader sought to strangle Gaza economically while the UAE
worked to engineer the return to Palestine of its protégé, Mohammed Dahlan,
a controversial Abu Dhabi-based former security chief with presidential
ambitions.

The UAE effort, coupled with Gulf gestures towards Israel,
stroke with the Trump administration’s efforts to create an environment
conducive to Israeli-Palestinian peace by first strengthening informal ties
between the Jewish state and key Arab nations. The administration has been
pushing for more open relations on issues like trade as well as more open
contact built on a common front against Iran and militant Islam.

The UAE in effect initiated the process when in 2015 it
allowed Israel to open its first diplomatic mission in the Gulf.

Gulf states have offered to establish relations with Israel
if it were to accept a 1982 Arab-endorsed Saudi plan for Israeli-Palestinian
peace that called for an Israeli withdrawal from territory occupied during the
1967 Middle East war and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside
Israel. As a result, Israel’s mission is accredited to the International
Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi rather than the UAE government but
serves as an unofficial
embassy to the Gulf.

The ink on Bahrain’s declaration of religious freedom had
barely dried by the time that the gestures towards Israel became mired in the 3.5-month-old
Gulf crisis that pits Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Jewish leaders targeted
by the three countries condemned efforts by Qatar emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
Al Thani to meet with the Jewish community during his visit to New York to attend
the United Nations General Assembly. Sheikh Tamim hired a Jewish PR firm to
organize meetings.

Reflecting the divisions among American Jewry, Rabbi
Shmuley Boteach organized a full-page ad in The New York Times to denounce
Jews willing to meet with the Qatari leader. “It is a shameful episode for our
community when those who fund the murder of Jews in Israel are being embraced
by Jews in the United States,” the ad said, referring to Qatari relations with
Hamas that have been endorsed by the United States.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile